February 28, 2009

Caroline Kennedy, author of books that did well enough, still clings, at least in her public statements, to an Uncle figure. In her case it's her Uncle Ted.

Award-winner Elie Wiesel, the influential humanist writer, depended on an uncle too. It was Bernard "Uncle Bernie" Madoff. Wiesel lost both his family nest egg and that of his charity.

Then there are the too many booze-bouncer-backs who have carved an uncle figure out of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson. They journey to his home in Vermont as if they are Christian pilgrims to Bethlehem.

This is unnecessary co-dependence. None of us should be that fragile or needy. Those who are should get therapy and get over it. The cognitive approach works Download Geezerguts. And it does the trick within five months, max.

It is also an obstacle to our ability to break into new styles, new themes, new voices. And all that is essential in a digital era.

How to surmount the Uncle trap? Look at these creatures who we allowed to keep us hostage for the flawed, agenda-oriented human beings that they are. Uncle Ted certainly made more than his fair share of poor, morally suspect decisions. Uncle Bernie seethed with a class resentment he should have gotten over as his success increased. Uncle Bill was entirely too visible, influential, and hands-on in the 12-step movement.

Let's open ourselves to making our own lousy choices, nurse our own grudges, and exploit our own missions. We're human. And it's exactly that humanity, when we let it play out in all its myopia, which creates great copy.

February 27, 2009

They know they're okay today but they have no idea how their enterprises or jobs will be tomorrow. That hush got lots more hushed as we all found out that in the fourth quarter of 2008, GDP was down 6.2%.

Gone for now are their gun-fire rapid pontifications about what is, what was, and what will be. Instead, they're poring over analysis of the current economic crisis such as global advisory firm The Dilenschneider Group's Trend Report Download WorldinCrisisLookstoaNewEra. They're even asking questions - no one can answer.

There's no such hush in my home office. The three cats - Point Pleasant, Carlotta, Jason - aren't preoccupied with the state of the financial markets. At 10 A.M. EST they leap into the loud-meow mode for their Fancy Feast, preferably Salmon in Gravy. And that's that. They have complete certainty about their little universe. That's why intuitives like Sylvia Browne recommend we have four-footed companions [A good read is Browne's new book "All Pets Go to Heaven: The spiritual lives of the animals we love."]

Because of foreclosures, animal rescue organizations and local shelters have an unusually high number of cats, dogs, rabbits, and birds which need homes. Adopting one or more could be the shrewdest move for all of us during this recession. Our animal companions keep us centered. That's their job. After all, we're the ones who open the cans of Fancy Feast.

February 26, 2009

Here in Connecticut our trusty leader Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is looking out for us porkers. The AG nailed Beverage Partnership Worldwide [BPW] - a joint venture of Coca-Cola and Nestle - for claiming that its beverage Enviga speeded up our metabolism. Enviga consists of green tea and caffeine.

Today, reports John O'Brien in LEGAL NEWSLINE, BPW agreed to stop those claims and made a monetary settlement. CT's General Fund will get more than $100,000 of that amount.

The ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS will go out of existence this Friday. When I was a speechwriter for CHEVRON I regularly dealt with the newspaper's reporters. They were smart, passionate and cared about everything.

February 25, 2009

Connecticut consultant and political activist Ann Pomerleau reports in on the President's address last night:

"I was impressed. He 'talked' to the American people rather than 'dictate' his intentions like his predecessor did. He told us exactly how bad our situation is and what his plans for corrective action are.

"Of course I know that President Obama is not popular with Wall Street right now. That's because he's not catering to them. But drastic times call for drastic actions. I just hope that the statement he made regarding monitoring the use of bailout funds is accurate and that he is able to accomplish the task. There was so much waste and mismanagement of funds distribution during the last administration.

"One question: Why was Michelle wearing a 'cocktail' dress?"

During Campaign08, Ann Pomerleau worked the phones and the net for the election of Barack Obama.

Now we got it, now that it's gone: Writing was essentially an art supported by the generous patronage of appreciative deep pockets. Over the decades, we writers had all sort of Medici-like patrons. Those have included:

Academic appointments. We taught a few courses in return for a stipend to write our own stuff.

BigMedia made us BigNames. That gave us the platform to make enough money to experiment with doing something seminal.

BigPR had us penning press releases and ghostwriting opinion-editorials. That was plenty to support many a winter, spring, summer and fall in New England writing provocative essays which no more than 500 folks would read.

Foundations provided fellowships. That bought us a few months or so to do something serious.

Currently, though, most of the Medici types have their own economic problems as well as reform preoccupations, e.g. standardizing how businesses present their financial data, ending M2M. So, what do we writers do in this post-patronage age? Heck, even those heavies who supply VANITY FAIR with snippets of insight and high dosages of gossip could be stranded out here, sans guaranteed income.

The answer, and it's not a happy state of affairs, is that we have to remake ourselves as commercial beings. In MARKET WATCH, Todd Harrison tells global movers and shakers, "Most companies must reinvent themselves if they hope to find their ways to better days." At the top of the list of Harrison's suggestions is that they find a niche or more. Forget being "the so-called 'Jacks-of-all-trades.'"

I bumped into that reality around the turn of the century. Therefore, I have had the advantage of time to experiment with approaches to a writer's re-do. Harrison is right on the money. It's all about niche.

After plenty of false starts, I discovered the niche of legal writing, everything from blogging on regulatory and litigation issues to ghostwriting closing arguments for trials. In late 2005 and early 2006, I even invested four months of my own time commuting across the border from central Connecticut to Rhode Island. There I live-blogged what turned out to be a landmark trial: Lead paint public nuisance. The $10,000 loan I arranged via my credit card to facilitate that has long been paid off.

Those are the kinds of inputs/risks we gotta take in order to subsidize our art of writing. The road less traveled is the only road to making a living these days. Why the Millennials at Mediabistro.com haven't recognized that is a puzzle. They are still earnestly seeking information from each other on bulletin boards about how to prepare a pitch for a freelance article for FAMILY CIRCLE. Cute, but a waste of precious time that has to be focused on carving out a viable commercial niche.

February 24, 2009

Symbolism is everything. We know that from the Congressional and public outcry about the GM folks who flew into Washington D.C. on their own private jet to beg for a bailout.

So, Ford executives seem to be doing exactly the right thing the day after hourly workers agreed to concessions. As Matthew Dolan reports in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, "The top leaders at the company [Ford] said they agreed to accept a 30% reduction in their salaries over the next two years."

Cynics will say that the brass will still be taking home a bundle. That doesn't matter. What matters is that sacrifices are being made. That's what government, the public and car-buyers see. And that might be plenty for Ford to continue to get back on its feet.

New-media consultant Scott Johnson has this response to the President's address to Congress:

"It's a bold stance he's taking - and a giant risk politically. It will be exhausting watching this administration carry out these plans.

"If they succeed, it will certainly create a new level of respect and admiration for President Obama and his cabinet. If the beltway and the country don't rally around him and his plan, it will surely slow the wave and promise of change the country elected him to bring about. That set-back could ripple for years."

HALLMARK Magazine joins the body count of deep-sixed print publications. Yeah, even Hallmark brand of inspirational can't survive this digital era. According to Mike Vilensky of NEW YORK, the company decided to pull the plug so that it "can focus efforts and resources on other, more steadily profitable interests."